ABSTRACT
The study investigated the effects of cognitive restructuring and assertiveness training on sexual behaviour of secondary school adolescents. To guide the study, four research questions and four null hypothesis were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The investigation employed a 2×3 factorial design . The Students Sexual Behaviour Inventory (S.S.B.I) served as the instrument for gathering of data. The study used 54 students with highest scores in S.S.B.I pre-ol,test as sample. The students were assigned randomly to experimental groups using a table of random numbers. t- test statistic was used for analysis of data. The findings indicate that :
Cognitive restructuring and assertiveness training techniques significantly improved the sexual behaviour of the secondary school adolescents.
The durability of the effects of the assertiveness training and cognitive restructuring techniques at four weeks follow-up showed the ability of the techniques to impact permanent change on the sexual behaviour of the subjects.
Gender was found to have no significant influence on effect of cognitive restructuring and assertiveness training techniques in improving sexual behaviour. However, cognitive restructuring technique was found to be more effective with the male than the female students.. Assertiveness training revealed relatively equal effect on both male and female. The educational implications of the findings and relevant recommendations were highlighted such as :
The techniques should be adopted as necessary components of the counsellor’s intervention package for sexual problems of adolescents in secondary schools. Teachers could be trained on how to use insights from the techniques for example, disputation in cognitive restructuring and over learning through role playing in assertiveness training to help students with sexual adjustment problems.
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
At birth a child is completely helpless, unable to survive if left on its own. In a period of twenty years , he/she becomes an adult, able to go out on his/her own and fend for himself/herself through informal education. This process of learning is referred to as socialization. Socialization has been defined as a process through which individuals acquire the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that enable them to participate as more or less effective members of groups or societies (Ngodo, 2000). It is thus a means of acquiring culture and other forms of behaviour, including sexual behaviours.
Sexual behaviour embraces all observable sexual acts such as homosexual,
bisexual and heterosexual intercourse; masturbation, fondling and kissing (Woko and Odoemelam,2009). Wolman in Oko (2011) in a more comprehensive manner defined sexual behaviour as the totality of normal and abnormal, conscious and unconscious; overt and covert sensations; thoughts, feelings, and actions related to sexual organs and other erogenic zones. The activities could be normal such as in wooing or abnormal as in the case of rape. Other examples of abnormal sexual behaviours are masturbation, premarital coitus, extra marital coitus, promiscuity, rape, voyeurism, pedophilia, among others (Woko and Odoemelam ,2009) .
The acquisition of approved sexual behaviour is one of the objectives of
traditional socialization. In a traditional setting, obscene pictures, languages and songs are not allowed. Sensitive parts of the body are described or referred to
importantly through example and social sanction(Oko,2011). In order to enforce all traditional norms, older siblings and other extended family members often possess immense discretion to interpret the norms and to apply sanctions on the younger ones, especially the adolescents. Hence, the researcher defines sexual behaviour as mental and observable activities that predispose one to intra/interpersonal satisfaction of the sexual drive.
Such satisfaction of the sexual drive is deemed healthy when it does not
contradict the cultural values and norms of the society. This in contrast to risky sexual behaviour which borders on promiscuity with all its attendant health, social and psychological hazards. Healthy and risky sexual behaviour are characteristic of adolescents. The term adolescence typically refers to the socially defined period during which a person adjusts to the physical, emotional, and social changes associated with the transition from childhood to adulthood. It could also be defined as the period when the human organism gains the necessary social, intellectual and emotional experience on how to manage the biological maturity achieved at puberty. Adolescence, which refers to 12 to17years age bracket is a period marked by increased sexual drive.
This increased sexual drive has been attested to by many researchers. A survey carried out by Jones and Meyer(2009) on adolescence and sexuality indicates that more adolescents are engaging in sexual intercourse without any sense of guilt. Even though they may endorse the traditional view that premarital sex is wrong, adolescents and youth are nevertheless motivated to engage in such relationships due to curiosity. Most adolescents feel that they are expected to have sexual
experience in order to develop a high level of competence in sexual relations. In addition, engaging in sexual relations may be reinforcing for some adolescents for reasons such as to prove to themselves and others that they have achieved a mature status ; to establish a sense of independence and to affirm sexual identity. Other adolescents who cultivate sexually abstinent relationships develop self confidence, high self esteem and self acceptance from the recognition and commendation of significant
persons in the environment who recognize them for conforming to social norms and
values (McNeedy and Blanchard,2009).
Nevertheless, adolescent sexual experience is marked by a feeling of ambivalence. The ambivalent feeling stems from the fact that sexually active adolescents fear being considered loose in character by their sexually abstinent peers. This is in contrast to sexually abstinent adolescents who may fear being considered as naive by their sexually active peers. Sometimes an adolescent finds himself or herself fighting with both indulgent and abstinent tendencies at the same time. Others may struggle with same-sex attractions and the attendant sense of guilt and fear of being labeled deviant. As such moderation of sexual behaviour may become particularly difficult for adolescents(McNeely, & Blanchard,2009).
The difficulty adolescents experience in moderating sexual behaviour stem from
the plethora of influences which the adolescent is susceptible to. For example, Oko (2007) noted that many adolescents choose their heroes and heroines from the characters projected by the mass media. The graphic sex and violence portrayed in the media often throw the adolescent into confusion in making the choice. The imitation of some of the models has encouraged high incidence of premarital sex and
deviant sexual behaviour among adolescents. Odoemelam (1998) cited some examples of deviant sexual behaviours such as masturbation, homosexuality, lesbianism, exhibitionism, extra marital coitus, prostitution, rape, voyeurism, pedophilia, among others. These has resulted to cases of unwanted teenage pregnancies, abortions, abandoned babies, unmarried teenage mothers and teenage marriage .
The deleterious effect of the mass media with reference to adolescent sexuality is pronounced in Abia State, the location of the present study. Abia State has become notorious for child trafficking in the guise of child adoption. In 2009, the state witnessed more than three incidences of groups of pregnant teenagers being arrested by the police and anti child trafficking agents in hospitals of mischievous medical doctors who use them to perpetrate their business of child trafficking. These medical doctors encourage adolescents to conceive out of wedlock or even impregnate them by themselves; accommodate and take care of them during the pregnancy. When they are delivered of the child, they pay them off with a paltry sum of money while the child is sold to barren couples at a very exorbitant cost. So the temptation to be promiscuous is very high thereby making positive sexual behaviour adjustment difficult for adolescents .
Sexual behaviour is a composition of cognitive and attitudinal variables (Whelan,2010) . Cognitive factors are those that relate to how and what individuals know about sex and sexuality, and their ability to apply the knowledge in social relationships especially with the opposite sex. Attitudinal factors include people’s feeling about situations, others and themselves with reference to sex. A synthesis of
the cognitive and the attitudinal factors result to sexual behaviour which could be defined as how people relate to themselves and the opposite sex on sexual matters.
The depravity in the sexual behaviour of female adolescents is sometimes more pronounced due to their physiology. The physical changes that occur at pubescence are responsible for the appearance of the sex drive. The gratification of sex drives is still complicated by many social taboos, as well as by a lack of accurate knowledge about sexuality. Since the 1960s, however, sexual activity has increased among adolescents. Recent studies show that almost 50 percent of adolescents under the age of 15 and 75 percent under the age of 19 report of having had sexual intercourse. Despite their involvement in sexual activity, some adolescents are not interested in, or knowledgeable about, birth-control methods or the symptoms of sexually transmitted disease. Consequently, the rate of illegitimate births and the incidence of sexually transmitted disease are increasing (Jones and Meyer,2009).
Counselling strategies are methods, designs, approaches and procedures which the counsellor uses in order to help his client ( Otta, 2005). In view of the fact that adolescent sexual behaviour sometimes derives from erroneous assumptions, cognitive restructuring (CR) can be employed. Cognitive restructuring is different from advice giving which is authoritarian and relies heavily on experience instead of psychological principles. It is also different from counselling which is the application of psychological principles to help a client identify, analyze and adjust to life challenges and opportunities. Cognitive restructuring is a therapeutic technique specifically applicable to problems emanating from the thinking process. It involves alteration of the clients’ pattern of organizing experience and concomitant interpretations (Ajoku,1998).Cognitive restructuring could also be described as the
reinterpretation of the meaning and values which a person attaches to events, symbols and experience with the intention to promote positive adjustment to challenges or opportunities (Oko,2007). Cognitive restructuring involves not only helping clients to identify self defeating thoughts but also to substitute these thoughts with positive self enhancing thoughts. This enables the client to identify and reject erroneous thoughts and to internalize coping thoughts. Accordingly, a number of research has been done with Cognitive restructuring as a technique of modifying maladaptive behaviour such as depression, anxiety and poor self concept. The success recorded in these studies attests to the efficacy of cognitive restructuring as a technique (Okoro, 2000,;Ezeribe,Odoemelam and Otta,2009;).
In a similar way, Assertiveness Training (AT) has recorded success in impacting on anxiety provoking situations. Assertiveness training is a therapeutic process applied to cushion the effects of anxiety arising from interpersonal relationships (Oko,2007). In this study, assertiveness training refers to a systematic procedure of making someone develop awareness of his fundamental human rights which enables him to overcome the anxiety associated with making a scene in curbing the excessive aggression of others in human relations. The technique rests on the principle that if an individual could be encouraged to express his feelings more adequately in interpersonal relations, anxiety would gradually be inhibited since an anxious state is incompatible with assertive expression of feeling (Oko, 2007).
Assertiveness training is used to modify anxiety arising from interpersonal relationships especially with the opposite sex. This is necessary to check the neurotic guilt which often accompanies such assertive behaviour due to cultural conditioning. In a society where there is high degree of inhibition on sex related
matters but high rate of covert promiscuity, there is need for assertive behaviour to check undue pressure and cowardice when one’s sexual right is being abused. Since sexual behaviour is a composition of cognitive and attitudinal variables and cognitive restructuring and assertiveness training have been effective in solving cognitive and attitudinal problems , the researcher deemed it expedient to investigate the effect on cognitive restructuring and assertiveness training on the sexual behaviour of secondary school adolescents.
Statement of the Problem
Promiscuity among adolescents has assumed an alarming rate in recent times. The trend has continued unabated due to the inability of some adolescents to overcome erroneous assumptions about sex and lack of assertive behavior. Some of the erroneous assumptions or thoughts are that sex should be shrouded in secrecy, that sex education is dangerous and that use of contraceptives is sin against God. Lack of assertive behaviour manifests in the fear of offence, shyness and inability to say no when necessary. The frequent cases of expulsion from school as a result of adolescent pregnancy, secret abortions, abandoned babies, child trafficking and single parenthood among adolescents confirm the high incidence of premarital sex among them. The ugly trend has been accelerated by the dawn of the mobile telephone which facilitates truancy, secret sexual engagements, dirty sexual discussions and faking. The infatuation which characterizes adolescent sexual experience leads to poor concentration in learning which results in poor academic performance.
A number of measures has been taken by the relevant authorities to check this
ugly trend. These include expulsion of pregnant adolescents and their male
impregnators from the school, AIDS awareness campaign in schools, sex education, moral instruction, special workshops and corporal punishment. So far, the ugly trend remains unabated especially in Aba, Abia State due to the inability of the above measures to tackle the erroneous assumptions associated with sexual behavior. Accordingly, a number of researches have been done with cognitive restructuring as a technique of modifying maladaptive behavior such as depression, anxiety and poor self concept. Depression, anxiety and poor self concept derive from erroneous thought and assumptions just as sexual behaviour. Likewise lack of assertive behavior in sexual relationships is associated with anxiety. Assertiveness is reckoned to be incompatible with anxiety. In view of the fact that lack of assertive behavior and erroneous assumptions about sex inform promiscuity among secondary school adolescents, there is the need to investigate the effects of assertiveness training and cognitive restructuring on sexual behaviour of adolescents.
Purpose of the Study
The study sought to determine the effect of Cognitive Restructuring and Assertiveness Training on Sexual Behaviours of Adolescents in Secondary Schools in Abia State. Specifically the study sought to determine the:
1. effect of Cognitive Restructuring on sexual behaviours of secondary school adolescents.
2. effect of Assertiveness Training on sexual behaviours of secondary school
adolescents .
3. durability of effect of Cognitive Restructuring and Assertiveness Training on sexual behaviours of secondary school adolescents at one month follow-up
interval
4. influence of gender on treatment outcomes.
Significance of Study
The study would be significant in a number of ways. The findings of the study if published in online or analog research journals and books could be of great relevance to psychologists, counsellors, teachers, adolescent students and society. The postulations of the theories of rational emotive therapy and systematic dysensitization by reciprocal inhibition on which this study was anchored were tested and supported by the findings of this study. This was shown by the existence of significant difference between students exposed to treatment and the control group. These findings, if published, contribute to the cumulative research materials available on rational emotive therapy and systematic dysensitization by reciprocal inhibition in the global and African context. This in course of time may develop into an indigenous literature on behaviour modification theories especially with reference to sexual behaviour.
The findings of the study would be of great benefit to educational and counselling psychologists. The existence of significant difference between students exposed to treatment and the control group confirmed the authenticity of cognitive restructuring and assertiveness training techniques in correcting erroneous beliefs about sex and overcoming anxiety in sex related interpersonal relationships. This
could be an insight in promoting adolescent sexual adjustment. The study will be of immense benefit to adolescents.
If the therapeutic techniques of cognitive restructuring and assertiveness training recorded significant improvements in the modification of adolescent sexual behaviour as measured by SSBI, then counsellors’ repertoire of intervention techniques would have been enriched for more efficient performance of their roles. The findings would provide counsellors with better understanding of the techniques in relation to sexual behavior. The insight will facilitate better and more effective monitoring and control of deviant sexual behaviour at the school in order to improve the quality of learning.
Success in the management of students normal and abnormal sexual behaviour through the intervention of the techniques will greatly enhance the performance of teachers as student academic advisers. The society would derive immense benefit from the study due to improved sexual behaviour of students. Teenage pregnancy accounts for both female and male school drop-out. While the girls are expelled by the school, parents of the teenage impregnators often withdraw them from school as a punishment . Many of the boys end up as business apprentices or technicians. They are contracted to their masters in order for them to develop self discipline. In view of the urgency of the Universal Basic Education as a millennium development goal, the findings of the study will lead to the employment of strategies that will reduce the drop-out rate occasioned by reckless sexual behaviour in the school.
Scope of Study
The study was concerned with the effect of Cognitive Restructuring and Assertiveness Training on the sexual behaviour of adolescents. The sexual behaviors include masturbation, heterosexual petting, sex play, rape, Incest , exhibitionism, voyeurism, seduction and student prostitution. The study was carried out among secondary school students in Aba and focused on adolescent boys and girls in junior secondary schools in Abia State.
Research Questions
The following research questions guided the study:
1. What is the effect of cognitive restructuring on sexual behaviour of adolescents in secondary schools ?
2. What is the effect of assertiveness training on sexual behaviour of adolescents in
secondary schools ?
3. How durable is the effect of cognitive restructuring and assertiveness training on the sexual behaviour of adolescents in secondary schools after one month
follow-up interval ?
4. What is the influence of gender on the effect of Cognitive restructuring and assertiveness training on sexual behaviour of adolescents in secondary school
s. Hypotheses
To guide the study, four null hypotheses were postulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance.
H01 There is no significant mean difference in the sexual behaviour of subjects exposed to cognitive restructuring (CR) and the control group as measured by the mean scores.
H02 There is no significant mean difference in the sexual behaviours of subjects
treated with assertiveness training (AT) and the control group as measured by the mean scores .
H03 There is no significant mean difference in the sexual behaviours of subjects treated with cognitive restructuring (CR) and assertiveness training (AT)
at post test and follow-up test compared.
H04 There is no significant influence of gender on the effect of cognitive restructuring and assertiveness training on sexual behaviours of students as measured by
their means scores.
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EFFECT OF COGNITIVE RESTRUCTURING AND ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING ON SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR OF SECONDARY SCHOOL ADOLESCENTS
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